Full Text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is producing a devastating pandemic that, since 2007, has spread to a contiguous geographical area from central Europe to Asia. In July 2021, ASFV was detected in the Dominican Republic, the first report of the disease in the Americas in more than 40 years. ASFV is a large, highly complex virus harboring a large dsDNA genome that encodes for more than 150 genes. The majority of these genes have not been functionally characterized. Bioinformatics analysis predicts that ASFV gene A859L encodes for an RNA helicase, although its function has not yet been experimentally assessed. Here, we evaluated the role of the A859L gene during virus replication in cell cultures and during infection in swine. For that purpose, a recombinant virus (ASFV-G-∆A859L) harboring a deletion of the A859L gene was developed using the highly virulent ASFV Georgia (ASFV-G) isolate as a template. Recombinant ASFV-G-∆A859L replicates in swine macrophage cultures as efficiently as the parental virus ASFV-G, demonstrating that the A859L gene is non-essential for ASFV replication. Experimental infection of domestic pigs demonstrated that ASFV-G-∆A859L replicates as efficiently and induces a clinical disease indistinguishable from that caused by the parental ASFV-G. These studies conclude that the predicted RNA helicase gene A859L is not involved in the processes of virus replication or disease production in swine.

Details

Title
Evaluation of an ASFV RNA Helicase Gene A859L for Virus Replication and Swine Virulence
Author
Ramirez-Medina, Elizabeth 1 ; Vuono, Elizabeth A 2 ; Pruitt, Sarah 1 ; Rai, Ayushi 3 ; Espinoza, Nallely 1 ; Velazquez-Salinas, Lauro 1 ; Gladue, Douglas P 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Borca, Manuel V 1 

 Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Orient, NY 11944, USA; [email protected] (E.R.-M.); [email protected] (E.A.V.); [email protected] (S.P.); [email protected] (A.R.); [email protected] (N.E.); [email protected] (L.V.-S.) 
 Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Orient, NY 11944, USA; [email protected] (E.R.-M.); [email protected] (E.A.V.); [email protected] (S.P.); [email protected] (A.R.); [email protected] (N.E.); [email protected] (L.V.-S.); Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 39762, USA 
 Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Orient, NY 11944, USA; [email protected] (E.R.-M.); [email protected] (E.A.V.); [email protected] (S.P.); [email protected] (A.R.); [email protected] (N.E.); [email protected] (L.V.-S.); Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA 
First page
10
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
19994915
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2621380960
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.